Overall, I think that this LTED 625 vocabulary blog has really helped me to become more aware of my word-learning process over the course of this semester. When looking back and reflecting on the words that I have chosen for this project, it seems that I am most attracted to educational words that will assist me in my professional life. I have also chosen a few words throughout the semester that I just genuinely liked or that were new to me outside of my profession. The words on my blog came from a variety of sources especially texts that I encountered from this course. For other words that I encountered outside of school, I had to use resources such as dictionary.com to find the meanings. I had some level of familiarity for most of the words with but there were a few that I had never heard before which I find most memorable.
This vocabulary journal was very beneficial because it caused me to be a more careful and reflective reader, listener, speaker, etc. It also caused me to monitor my reading and and writing to make sure that I was comprehending texts that I was enountering. By slowing down and recognizing important or unknown words, this strategy caused me to have a deeper understanding of the material that I was reading as well as broaden my vocabulary knowledge. This blog also caused me to read for another purpose other than for reading for information. After hunting for the words I wanted to include in my blog, I had to reflect and make personal connections to each word. What I particularly liked about the blog was that it allowed me to see the words and utilize the vocabulary resource from anywhere because it was online.
This blog also helped me to reflect and learn words outside of the terms that I posted because I got to view my classmates blogs. The VVS tests gave me the chance to develop a deeper understanding of particular words that I did not choose to place on my blog. The VVS strategy allows one to partake in a cultivating learner community (Ruddell & Shearer, 2002). As a positive and engaging strategy, it allows the learners to share what they've learned and discuss whether or not they think others should know or learn the words. It's a nice way to make the vocabulary authentic and share it with a real audience.
Prior to participating in this vocabulary strategy, I was opposed to vocabulary tests because I felt that they lacked authenticity and were hard to find relatable by the students. Now that I have went through this strategy my attitude towards vocabulary tests has definately shifted. This strategy incorporates several aspects that make it successful in my opinion. For example, in this case it was centered around a blog which meets 21st century needs, it makes the writing of the posts authentic, it allows the learner to make the vocabulary personal, and a learner community to grow and flourish. The vocabulary tests themselves allowed for me to create my own sentences for the each chosen word which made the test more authentic than most. The test also held me accountable for knowing how to spell each word and define the words. All three aspects are crucial when using each term in the future in my own writing or reading.
After this semester is over, I think that I will continue to slow down through my reading and reflect on words that I don't know, want to know better, or need to know to successfully comprehend the text. I doubt that I will continue to keep my own blog going but I think that I will continue to use the foundational startegies that the VVS strategy has taught me. The blog and the strategy, I think, could be used by and benefit my students in my classroom because they do struggle with vocabulary and word learning.
Overall, the VVS strategy was a beneficial strategy in that changed my view on vocabulry tests, helped me to monitr my reading, and assisted my word learning process. I think that the skills acquired from partaking in this strategy will last well after the blog is over. As a teacher, I think that I will try to bring a few components of this strategy into my classroom so hopefully my students can experience some of the benefits and skills that it helped me to build and expand upon.
Ruddell, M.R. & Shearer, B. A. (2002). “Extraordinary,” “tremendous,” “exhilarating,”
"magnificent”: Middle school at-risk students become avid word learners with the Vocabulary
Self-Collection Strategy (VSS). Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 45(5), 352-363.
